Puncturing the Malthus delusion: structural change in the British economy before the industrial revolution, 1500-1800

Patrick Wallis, Justin Colson and David Chilosi

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: Accounts of structural change in the pre-modern British economy vary substantially. We present the first time series of male labour sectoral shares before 1800, using a large sample of probate and apprenticeship data to produce national and county-level estimates. England experienced a rapid decline in the agricultural share between the early seventeenth and the beginning of the eighteenth centuries, associated with rising agricultural and especially industrial productivity; Wales saw only limited changes. Our results provide further evidence of early structural change, highlighting the significance of the mid-seventeenth century as a turning point in English economic development.

Keywords: Labour force; sectoral distribution; labour productivity; Britain; Wales (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J21 N13 N33 O14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 56 pages
Date: 2016-06
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:66816

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